Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Happy Easter to all of you and a special welcome to all of our visitors! I pray as you celebrate Easter Mass with us, you may come to know the peace of God in your hearts now and always. You are always welcome to come and to thank God for His many blessings most especially His Son who has risen from the dead!

Now we have begun the season of Easter! Last evening, at the Easter Vigil, we welcomed our newest Catholics. They stepped forward to be baptized and to be received into full communion in the Catholic Church. They received the Sacrament of Confirmation and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They received the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ for the first time! They formalized their commitment to Our Lord by "turning away from sin and being faithful to the Gospel" for the rest of their lives and hopefully for all eternity.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Welcome to Holy Week! Today we begin the holiest week of the year for the Catholic Church. This week the Church commemorates Christ's death and burial. Ancient writers called this the Great or Holy Week of Our Lord's Passion. The custom of keeping the Holy Week goes all the way back to the time of the Apostles. When the early Christians spoke about Jesus to others, they started with the Passion of Our Lord. Scholars believe that the Passion of Our Lord spread before the other parts of the Gospel were even written down. The Passion of Our Lord is really the starting point for building our relationship with Jesus.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Lent is almost over and there is only one week to go before Holy Week. You may notice that there is a shift happening in the readings of the Mass starting today. During the previous weeks of Lent, we focused on prayer, fasting and almsgiving and refocusing our lives on the mystery of our faith. But from the 5th Sunday of Lent until the Easter Vigil, we meditate on the events that lead Jesus to the Cross. That is, we come face to face with the increasing hostility and hatred of Jesus by those who would not (and still do not) accept Him for who He is. As tensions mount, Jesus' enemies accuse Him of sorcery and blasphemy and accuse Him of being possessed by a devil.

Once in a while I step into the chapel to pray and will spot a man or a woman quietly making their way in prayer through the church praying the Stations of the Cross using a variety of devotional books as they go. That "walk" of course, recounts Our Lord's journey to the cross to satisfy the debt of our sinfulness.

Their devotional journey often takes me back to my experience as a Catholic grade school student when I prayed with my family on Fridays during Lent. It also reminds me of being a pilgrim in the Holy Land when I journeyed the streets of the old city praying the Stations with other pilgrims. It is an intense experience today as many of the stations are in the Muslim district. In addition, in such an intensely multi-religious city, most walk by swiftly and unmoved--that is, unless they wish to sell a few cheap souvenirs.